UAE Court Ruling Reopens Deeper Questions in B.R. Shetty Case New AML disclosure rules shift focus from individual blame to systemic accountability

Abu Dhabi | January 2026

For nearly five years, public discourse surrounding B. R. Shetty, founder of NMC Healthcare, has been shaped by a largely one-dimensional narrative — that the crisis of a major healthcare group could be explained almost entirely as the result of one individual’s problems.

A recent ruling by the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), however, signals a meaningful shift. Rather than revisiting personal testimony or public accusations, the court’s decision opens the door to examining institutional conduct and documented financial oversight.

In a judgment issued on November 26, 2025, the ADGM court confirmed that under the UAE’s updated 2025 Anti-Money Laundering framework, banks may be compelled, by court order, to disclose internal reports related to suspicious transactions in civil proceedings.

The ruling allows NMC’s administrators to seek internal compliance and AML documentation from Bank of Baroda, one of the institutions involved in the group’s financing arrangements.

Legal analysts note that such disclosures are rarely accessible in civil litigation and mark a significant development in how financial accountability is examined. The focus shifts away from retrospective narratives toward verifiable questions: what risks were identified internally, when those risks were flagged, and how institutions responded.

The implications extend beyond this single case.

By re-centering scrutiny on institutional knowledge and behavior, the court implicitly acknowledges that large-scale corporate crises are seldom the product of individual action alone. This does not negate leadership responsibility, but it challenges a narrative that assigns total moral and financial blame to one person while leaving systemic decision-making largely unscrutinized.

Before the crisis, Shetty was widely regarded as one of the UAE’s most influential business builders. Over more than five decades, he established institutions that became embedded in everyday life — from healthcare networks serving millions of residents to financial services supporting migrant communities across the region.

He is a recipient of the Abu Dhabi Award, the Emirate’s highest civilian honor, recognizing exceptional service to the nation. Supporters argue that this broader record has been largely absent from recent coverage, which has tended to compress a long career into a single period of controversy.

Now 83 years old, Shetty faces proceedings across multiple jurisdictions under conditions of a comprehensive asset freeze. Legal observers note that such circumstances raise legitimate questions about procedural balance, particularly in cases involving complex cross-border finance where institutional parties retain full operational capacity.

By increasing transparency on the institutional side, the ADGM ruling may help restore a more proportionate evidentiary framework — one based less on narrative dominance and more on documented facts.

The decision does not predetermine outcomes. But it reflects a broader principle increasingly emphasized in global financial governance:

Accountability must be systemic, not symbolic.

As further disclosures unfold, the Shetty case will evolve from a story centered on individual attribution of responsibility into a deeper examination of how financial systems operate — and how they fail — under sustained pressure.